


Grounded

by stereksfate



Category: The 100, teen wolf - Fandom
Genre: Clexa, M/M, crackships, murven - Freeform, sterek
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-01-24 07:33:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18566806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stereksfate/pseuds/stereksfate
Summary: Stiles Stilinski was one of the 100 sent down to survive. Derek Hale snuck on the dropship in hopes of protecting his sister. Stiles is calm and stubborn while Derek is headstrong and arrogant and out of control. And yet, Stiles seems to be the only one that can keep him grounded.





	1. The Ground, That's The Dream

**Author's Note:**

> I love the 100 and Teen Wolf, so what better way to add the two together! I will hopefully make this series so each book has it's own season of the 100. You don't need to watch the 100, you can just think of this as post apocalyptic sterek if you want. Also not all of the dialogue will be accurate! And some exact dialogue may be said by one in the show but in the book it might be said by a different character.

Stiles sighed, leaning back up against the wall of his cell. He picked at his fingers mindlessly, bored out of his mind. He’d been stuck in this hellhole for the past six months. He’d been caught trying to steal extra medicine for his mother, and Jaha, giving no mercy, did the same old same old and sentenced him to death at eighteen. He was terrified after being given his sentence, no amount of bravado being able to cover up the amount of horror on his face. As time went on, he’d accepted his fate, but the most amount of fear went out to his father.

Today though, today was different. Stiles lifts his head as the cell door slides open, revealing two guards. He opens his mouth to speak, but first guard cut him to it. “Prisoner 312, face the wall,” he says authoritatively. Stiles just stands and turns around. This had never happened to him before. What did he have to hide?

“What the hell is this?” he asks, turning his head to notice what looked like a metal wristband in a box. “What the hell is that?”

“Stop talking,” the second guard, grabbing one of the wristbands.

“No… check my records,” Stiles protests. “I still have a month-”

“Hold out your wrist,” the first guard interrupts. “Now.”

Stiles’ breath hitches as the wristband clipped around his wrist, making a beeping sound as it did so. “Come with me,” the first guard says, grabbing Stiles’ arm forcefully.

They walk down multiple rows of the same designed cells. Stiles notices other delinquents exiting their cells with a guard. He gasps when he notices Clarke Griffin running past a guard and then into her mother's arms. She makes eye contact with him for a moment and her eyes widen in a shocked, “you’re not dead.” The eye contact was broken as Stiles was shoved harshly forward with a gruff, “Keep going!”

The walk only lasted for a few more minutes before they arrived in what looked like a… a dropship? A small bag was shoved into his hands. It was what looked like a month worth of average rations. “Sit in one of the seats. Restrain yourself tightly, if not, well, let’s say the end of your ride will not be enjoyable,” the guard says. He notices other people their, too. He sees no familiar faces, and he doesn’t know if that’s a relief or not. He sits in the middle of the dropship, making sure he was securely restrained before letting himself think.

He was going down to the ground, a guard didn’t need to tell him that much. But why? The Earth was said to need one hundred more years before it could become survivable. Why not just float him. This was a suicide mission inside itself. Why prolong his death?

A guard suddenly came in, carrying Clarke bridal style. He places her next to Stiles and Stiles couldn’t breathe. What had they done to her? Clarke, no matter how time had gone by, was still his best friend and always would be his best friend, and the fact the guards had done something to her had infuriated him. He glares at the guard and his gaze softens as he looks at Clarke. The guard secured her, but Stiles did a double check, because Clarke was all he had.

Once all the delinquents were finally all seated, there was a giant shake. The shake had woken Clarke, and she looks up to see Stiles. Her gaze quickly darkens and he turns to see Wells Jaha sitting on the other side of her. “Wells?” she asks the boy, her voice laced with confusion. “What are you-” There was another shake, and a scream followed after.

“I got myself arrested,” he says loudly over the voices. 

As the majority of the delinquents let out screams of shocks, a video began to play. Stiles scowled as Chancellor Jaha’s face showed up, and he blocks out Wells’ voice. Still, he couldn’t hear. Stiles rolled his eyes.

“For Christs sake! It was the atmosphere, shut the fuck up!” he yells, stopping the screams of fear and shock. He looks around, his nostrils flaring.

As Jaha began to talk about the victims crimes making them expendable enough to sacrifice for this mission, a male voice yelled out, “Your dad's a dick, Wells!”

Wells glares at the direction of the voice before rolling his eyes and turning back to the video. Stiles had stopped focusing when he noticed Finn Collins unbuckling his restraints. “Stay in your seat,” Stiles warns, remembering the words that guard had told him.

“Relax,” Finn says, floating towards him in zero gravity. Stiles scoffs.

“No wonder you’re doing this. You’re the idiot that wasted a month of oxygen for a spacewalk,” he says.

Suddenly, he notices more people getting out of their seats. “Stay in your seats!” he yells. They don’t listen and began to chuckle. Suddenly, there was a shake, and Finn went crashing down along with the two other boys.

“Finn!” Clarke yells. “Are you okay?!”

Suddenly, things began to move even faster, the machine hum getting louder. They were going to die.

Finally, after one more crash, there was silence of the humming. But it was pitch black for a moment before the lights flickered on once more. Stiles gasped, closing his eyes. So maybe they did have a chance. Finn groans, holding his head, and Stiles wants to punch the moron. “There’s no machine hum,” a boy says, stating the obvious.

“Those two guys…” the boy next to him says. “They’re dead.” Finn’s eyes widen and now Stiles really wants to punch him.

Stiles looks over to Clarke. “Are you okay?” he asks gently. Clarke nods before glaring at Wells.

“I’m fine,” she says bitterly. Stiles looks over Clarke’s head, staring at Wells with a look of anger. He doesn’t meet it. Smart of him.

Once again, there was commotion. People finally began getting up.

“The outdoors on the lower level!” a voice yells, making Clarke’s head snap up.

“We can’t just open the doors!” she exclaims, rushing forward, Stiles right behind her.

A crowd had begun to form, being held back by two older men. They were dressed in guard uniforms. “Stay back, guys!” one yelled. The other placed his hand over the lever, ready to pull it.

“Stop!” Stiles says, catching the first man's attention. “The air could be toxic!” The man turns to look at him.

“If the airs toxic we’re dead anyways.” he responds before nodding to the other man. “Go ahead, Bellamy.”

The second man, Bellamy, smirks. “My pleasure, Derek,” he responds.

Suddenly, two female voices alerted Bellamy and Derek’s attention. “Wait!” the two girls said in unison. Whispers broke out and heads turned. The two girls rushed forward as soon as they made eye contact with either man.

“It’s the two girls that hid under the floor,” Stiles heard someone say.

One girl rushed forward, wrapping her arms around Derek’s neck. “Cora!” Derek gasps. He embraced her tightly. It suddenly hit Stiles this was Cora and Octavia. 

“The fuck are you wearing? A guards uniform?” Octavia asks, gesturing to both men.

“We… borrowed them, O,” Derek smirks before Octavia hugs Derek.

“Dumbass,” Cora scoffs before hugging Bellamy. Though this hug was much different then the sibling-like one she did with Derek.

Clarke gives both girls questioning looks. “Where are your wristbands?” she asks. Cora rolls her eyes before turning to Clarke.

“Do you mind? We haven’t seen either of our brothers in a year,” Cora snaps. Apparently she spoke much too loud.

“No one has brothers!” a male voice shouts.

“That’s Octavia Blake and Cora Hale! The girls from the floor!” a female voice shouts back. The way she talked made it seem like a title, and it seemed neither of them liked it. Cora and Octavia made instant lunges, both having to be held back by their brothers.

“Give them something else to remember you two by,” Derek says to Octavia.

“And that is?”

“You two can be the first people on the ground in 100 years,” he responds, glancing at both of them.

There was a moment of silence as Bellamy dragged down the lever, and then a cool rush of air. The door was fully opened in a few moments, but it felt hours. Cora and Octavia nodded at each other before walking over the door and taking a step onto the lush, green grass. 

“WE’RE BACK BITCHES!” Octavia screams loudly, making Stiles wince at the unknown things she could have alerted. 

Cora began to cheer, and everyone seemed to quickly join in, not thinking ahead. Stiles finally got out of the dropship, quickly looking around for their medicine and other needs. Had they disconnected from it? He looks around quickly and could confirm that they probably had. He glances at Clarke, smiling at all the things she’d only seen in books. She glanced at Stiles, who just nodded and smiled at her. He glanced down at the wristband. This was all the communication they had for now. It must be giving a signal to the Ark, right? Telling them they were still alive. 

Stiles bumps into a solid wall of muscle, and he quickly realized it was Derek Hale. “I- sorry,” he apologizes, pushing past him, but was quickly held back.

“Where are you going?” he asks, a slight smirk on his face.

Stiles was not in the mood for his games. Derek Hale had made it evident he was trouble. 

“If you were being observant and not irrational, you’d realize all our supplies is gone. All we have is those fucking rations, and that won’t last long,” Stiles says. “They dropped us on the wrong damn mountain. Mount Weather is where we were supposed to go.”

Clarke had unknowingly come up behind Stiles. “What’s wrong?” she asks. 

“Pretty boy here says that we’re on the wrong mountain,” Derek explains. 

Clarke frowns, making Derek raise a questionable eyebrow. “He’s not wrong. That third shake dropped us off course.”

Wells, annoyingly, had heard it. “Off course?” he repeats.

Clarke nods. “If we don’t do anything about it, we won’t find any resources. We’ll all be dead by the end of the week,” she explains.  
Derek, behind his facade, looked almost worried. Stiles could see it the way his “I’m better and stronger than all of you” stance began to falter. 

“What do you need?” he asks. If Stiles was dumb, he’d say Derek was concerned. All he really cared about was himself.

“We need some people,” Stiles says, “We can’t carry what we need with two people.” 

“I’ll go,” Finn says. “And…”

He grabs two boys, and they generally confused, look at Clarke. “Them, too,” he adds on. Stiles recognizes them as Jasper Jordan and Monty Green. 

“Stiles’ mother and my father taught us how to use maps,” Clarke says. “We need to head out soon.” 

“The ground not good enough for you?” Bellamy asks, coming up with Cora and Octavia. 

“They’re the privileged. Of course they don’t,” Derek says. 

“Please, we need as many people as we can,” Stiles says. “Don’t make this hard.”

“Sounds like a party,” Cora says. “Make it five.” 

“Six,” Octavia says. She moves forward to join the slowly joining group. 

Bellamy moves forward, placing a hand on Octavia’s shoulder. “What the hell are you doing?” he asks, his eyes flashing in both anger and annoyance.

“Going for a walk.” She shrugs, walking over towards Finn. Bellamy huffs but makes no further movement. Derek seems less lenient about Cora, but still pissed nevertheless.

“Cora,” he warns.

“Derek,” she shoots back in the same tone. “I can make decisions for myself.” Her brother grunts and mumbles something about teenage girls before walking away with a pissed off Bellamy.

Stiles gives an uncertain glance to Clarke. “We’re doing this?” he asks nervously. 

She nods. “Yeah, Stiles. We are.”


	2. It May Not Be So Bad

Not even halfway through the walk, almost everyone had began to get distracted. Stiles couldn’t exactly blame them, it was beautiful, but he had more important matters. Like his survival. Clarke seemed to think the same thing as he did as she kept a steady pace with Stiles. He rolls his eyes when he notices Finn put a flower in Octavia’s hair. The look she gives him makes him want to vomit. Fucking heteros, he thinks. He’d heard almost too much as they began to talk about how they got locked up, and he was ready to snap at all of them to keep up. 

“How are you guys not seeing this stuff!” Finn asks curiously. Clarke turns to Finn, and the look in her eyes almost makes Stiles snort. 

“Well, it’s simple. I wonder, ‘why haven’t we seen any animals?’ Maybe it’s because there are none. Maybe we’ve already been exposed to enough radiation to kill us. Sure is pretty, though. Come on,” she says bitterly, glancing at each one of them with a pissed off look. 

Suddenly, there was a twig snap, and Stiles froze. What? He takes a step forward, and notices a deer eating some grass just a few yards away. Everyone had begun to gather around, staring in amazement. “No animals, eh, princess,” Finn says softly, nudging Clarke in the shoulder. 

Stiles gasps in disbelief. He couldn’t believe he was finally seeing one in person. He felt a pang in his chest as he remembered how much his mother would’ve loved to see a deer. Stiles smiles, looking at the deer. Finn takes a cautious step forward, not noticing the twig until he’d snapped it with his foot. 

Suddenly, the deer lifted it’s head and turned to the looking crowd. What Stiles saw made him stumble back, and everyone seemed to get that same idea. The deer had two heads. The deer began to bolt in a different direction, away from them. 

“What the hell was that?” Octavia asks. 

“An effect of the nuclear bombing my guess,” Clarke responds. 

Stiles, after recovering from the shock, shook his head. “We gotta keep going,” he announces, making Finn nod in agreement. 

They’d been walking for a few more minutes. “Why did they wait ninety-seven years to send us to the ground?” Finn speaks up. 

“Don’t know, nor do I care. I woke this morning rotting in a cell with Cora,” Octavia says, gripping a tree with one hand and swinging around it before jumping down to the lower ground, “ and now I’m on Earth.”

“The Ark is dying,” Clarke says without stopping. “They have about three months left. Maybe four now that we’re gone.” 

“That’s the secret they locked you up to keep?” Finn asks, finally keeping a steady pace.

“My father discovered the flaw. He thought the people had a right to know, my mother didn’t. We were gonna go public anyway, but Wells…” She pauses and Stiles gives her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. 

“What?” Jasper asks. “Turned in your father and got him floated?”

Clarke turns to look at Jasper to nod before continuing. “Anyway, the guard had managed to show up before we could do anything. That’s why they did it. Even if we all die, they bought themselves more time,” she concludes, finishing her story. 

“They’re gonna kill more people, aren’t they?” Monty asks, trailing closely behind Clarke.

Clarke’s lack of response seems to give him the answer. Stiles begin to pick at his fingernails. Would he never get to see his father again. Suddenly, Octavia was once again bouncing around.

“Good!” she announces almost happily. “After what they did to Cora and I, I say float them all.” 

Cora’s eyes widen at Octavia’s statement, but she didn’t protest or disagree. Jasper though, did. As Octavia began to walk ahead, he chased over to her. “You don’t mean that,” he says. 

Finn’s face is grimm and serious as he turns to meet Clarke and Stiles. “We have to warn them,” he says. 

The hardened look on Clarke’s face softens. “That’s what my father said,” she said softly, but it sounded like something of fear to Stiles. She turns and bumps into Jasper.

“Damn, I love Earth,” he says breathlessly. He smiles almost dreamily and it takes Stiles no longer than a moment to realize why. Octavia is wearing nothing but underwear and a thin, tight tank top. She glances back at everyone with a smirk on her face. Stiles notices a stream beneath the rocks she was standing on.

“What the hell are you doing!” Cora yells. Octavia turns just for a moment before jumping into the stream below. 

“I will kill her I swear,” Stiles hisses, running up to the rocks and looking down to make sure she was okay.

“Octavia!” Clarke is gaping, and Stiles swears her mouth can’t get any bigger than that.

A majority of her face is covered by water, looking as if she was treading water. “You know how to swim?” Stiles asks in amazement. 

“No,” Octavia responds as she stands. So the water wasn’t that deep. “But I can still stand!” 

Jasper laughs, throwing his jacket aimlessly at the rocks before going for his shirt. “W-wait,” Clarke says, confused as she checks the map. “There shouldn’t be a stream here.” 

Finn comes up from behind her before saying, “Well, there is. So take off your damn clothes.” Stiles takes a step back, not liking the idea.

“We have to keep goi-”

There was a splash. “Octavia…,” Jasper says as he notices something moving in the water. 

“Get out of the water!” Cora gasps as the figure is almost on top of her. Octavia makes a desperate lung, only to be pulled under with a screech. 

“What the hell is that!” Monty yells. 

“I don’t know, but we have to help her,” Stiles says before he notices a spare rock on the ledge Octavia previously jumped from. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices Jasper jumping into the stream. “Jasper! Don’t-”

“If we distract it, it might let her go,” Clarke says, following Stiles’ idea. They threw the rocks into a total different direction, and soon Octavia was flailing wildly, gasping for breath. Jasper has already reached Octavia now, but the creature was already coming back. 

“Hurry!” Stiles encourages. He races to pull the two up, Cora, Clarke, Finn, and Monty following after him. 

Finn heaves Jasper and Octavia out, and the two lay there, gasping for breath. Octavia is basically on top of Jasper, and Stiles smirks at the evident blush on his face. “Thank you,” she says to him, smiling brightly. 

“Note to self, next time, safe the girl,” Monty laughs, causing everyone else to join in with a relieved laugh. They got lucky this time, and for now, Stiles was okay with that, but the edging feeling inside him wondered how long it would be until that lucky ran out. 

After that event, everyone seemed to lose all energy that they had spared. They walked back into the woods as soon as the sun began to set. Clarke slumps against a tree and Stiles goes with her.

“I have a feeling there’s something happening back at the camp. Derek and Bellamy are probably causing trouble or… or something. What if the camp is destroyed? Something came,” Stiles sighs, looking up at the sky. “Is my father okay? Your mother?” He frowns, his whole face clouding with worry. Abby had been the woman that raised him as his father turned to drinking- something that was limited on the Ark, and that fueled his father's anger. He’d gotten better after, and Stiles was proud, but Abby was the closest thing he had to a parent after his mother.

“They’re gonna be okay,” Clarke says, but Stiles could detect the doubt in her voice. She was trying to be hopeful, but Stiles knew this was an act to make people feel better. He admired her for that. Clarke was easily the strongest person he knew.

“Get some sleep,” Stiles says after a moment of silence passes. “I’ll keep watch.”

Clarke frowns at the idea. “No, you really should sleep,” she says.

“I’ll wake you up in a few hours,” Stiles promises. She gave him a disbelieving look before turning over, trying to rest her head on something soft, but ended settling up on some moss.  
]  
He smiles at the blonde girl before looking at the forest. There was a faint blue like glow illuminated the forest. He smiles. Behind the chaos, it seemed like there could be something positive after all. He glances at everyone, noticing them all except for Finn. Where was Finn? He stands, taking a brief look around the forest clearing before noticing him carrying what looked like a leaf. A large one, large enough to carry… he smiles when he hears the splashing of water. 

“You think that was a smart idea?” Stiles laughs as Finn shrugs. 

“Couldn’t sleep. Wanted to see if you wanted some,” he responds.

“Worth almost losing a finger?” Stiles asks as he takes a sip from the giant leaf. “I got a weird feeling-” He makes a wild hand gesture with the one that’s not holding the leaf. “About all of this. I mean it. I’m just not sure if everything’s safe. One minute it’s calm and the next Octavia’s about to get eaten!” He hands the leaf back to Finn, but he urges Stiles to drink some more before finally accepting it back.

“I don’t even want to imagine what's happening back….” He shudders at that already nightmare of a camp. “There.”

“I don’t either,” Stiles agrees with a quiet laugh. 

He turns his head to see Finn gazing at Clarke like she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. “You like her,” Stiles says, smirking. He didn’t mean anything by it, just stating the way too fucking obvious. 

“I…” His expression softens. “I do, sorta. I just... I don’t know her.” 

“She’s the strongest girl you’ll ever meet, I’ll tell you that,” Stiles says, taking a gulp from the leaf. 

“I can tell,” Finn says with a kind smile.

“You’d be good for her, from what I can tell. But, she doesn’t need it right now. We need to focus on surviving,” Stiles says. 

“I know, I know,” Finn sighs. 

Stiles pats his shoulder. “Go on. Get some sleep. I told Clarke I’d wake her soon but…” He chuckles when he hears a soft snore coming from her. “I don’t want to.”

Finn shook his head. “You go. You’ve earned it for being smart with the rocks,” he says and Stiles nods, too tired to pass up the offer. 

“Wake me soon. I don’t want them to be disturbed,” Stiles says before going back to his old spot and laying the opposite way of Clarke. His father teased him about having feelings for the blonde girl until Stiles finally had to come clean about his sexualityto his father. It was not fun. Clarke was his best friend, and she was nothing more. She was like his sister after all they’d been through together. If he couldn’t beat this world, he’d die to make sure should could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, as you can see, I'm focusing on Stiles' and Clarke's friendship because as this book (and hopefully more books) goes on, you'll see the two are easily in the top five most important relationships in this book.


	3. We're Not Alone

When the morning comes, Stiles is waken by Cora. “Hey,” she says with a smile when Stiles’ eyes finally flutter open. Stiles sits up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Hi,” he groans. “What’s going on?” 

“We’ve found a way to get across the stream,” Cora says brightly. 

Stiles is wide awake now. “Really?” he asks, the surprise evident in his voice. Cora nods excitedly. 

Stiles pushes himself to his feet and follows Cora back to the stream. The notices Jasper holding onto a vine, ready to swing across the stream. Stiles feels his stomach twist. He was going to have to do that, too? 

Clarke places a reassuring hand on his shoulder, smiling at him. “You ready, Jasper?” Stiles asks. 

“Hell yeah,” Jasper responds, a grin on his face. 

Finn looks at Jasper with a nod. “See you on the other side, buddy,” he says. 

“Damn right,” Jasper responds before he’s getting a running jump across the stream. He stumbles as he lands, but he recovers. He picks up a sign that reads in bold letters, “Mount Weather.” Cheers ring out, and Octavia smiles proudly and Stiles lets out an excited whoop.

“We did it!” Jasper yells, shaking the sign in victory. 

“Alright,” Finn says, grabbing the vine as it swung back. He turned it over to Clarke. “Your turn, princess,” he says with a smile. Clarke grabs the vine, takes one look at the stream and then Stiles. He gives her a thumbs up and she takes a breath. 

“Hell ye-” Jasper was cut off as he was thrown back, and the cheering stopped. Stiles peered closer and stumbled back, his mouth moving but no sound coming closer. Jasper was staring in shock, his eyes wide open and filled with shock a he sees a spear lodged deep within his chest.

“J- Jasper!” Clarke screams. She was still gripping onto the vine. Stiles couldn’t breathe. He thought there was no one else. There wasn’t- it wasn’t possible. 

“Get down,” he hears Finn say to a shaken up Clarke. She steps down and Finn catches her as she basically trips down. Stiles places a protective arm in front of the person behind him that happens to be Cora. Her eyes were wild and she looked around, her hair whipping around her face as she did it so fast.

“Get behind me,” Stiles says to her. No one else was getting hurt. Not on his watch. He notices Monty was taking multiple steps away, his whole body trembling.

“Stay together,” he says authoritatively. He expected Octavia to give him shit and say he was no “Chancellor of Earth,” but she decided against it and actually did as he said.

“You know what this means?” Clarke asks, her breath labored.

“We’re not alone,” Stiles responds. 

They didn’t mean to leave Jasper, but they had no choice but to run back into the woods. They ran to get out of the clearing. “Stay out of the trees,” Stiles says as they’re finally away. 

There was a bloodcurdling scream. It was almost inhuman, and it was Jasper. “He’s alive,” Monty breathes.

“We’re so screwed,” Cora says, leaning against a tree.

“We have to go back for him!” Stiles says. “He’s alive.”

Suddenly, Clarke is running back for to the stream. Stiles’ head snaps up. “Clarke!” he yells, running after her. Cora shakes her head and follows after them. He comes to a stop when he realizes he can’t see Jasper’s body where it was previously on the other side stream. 

“They took him,” Cora gasps. “Oh, my god. They-”  
“It’s not safe to be out here,” Stiles says. “They aimed past us. They were on our side of the stream.”

“We were wrong about no survivors,” Clarke says, scanning the area in front of her for any hint of Jasper. “They couldn’t have gone far.” 

“Which means they could still be still be here,” Stiles says, shaking his head. “We have to go. It’s not safe around here.” Was it safe anywhere? He turns back, scanning the area to make sure the people- the Grounders weren’t following them. 

“We have to go back to camp, re-group,” Stiles announces. His eyes set with determination. “And then we get Jasper back.” 

The trip back to the camp was long and antagonizing. They came back with shoulders slumped and eyes dark. The mood changed from fearful to annoyed when Stiles sees Derek hand Wells a knife. What the hell? Stiles’ pace speeds up when Murphy lunges at Wells and turns into a sprint when they began to fight, each getting some good hits on each other.

“Are you insane?!” he shouts, shoving Derek roughly in the chest. Derek stumbles back and his eyes gaze in shock but it soon disappears. 

“Calm down, pretty boy,” Derek grunts, shrugging Stiles away. “They’re just fighting it out.” His eyes scan over the incoming group. “Where’s the supplies?” he questions.

“We weren’t able to take anything. Jasper got taken,” Cora says. 

“Cora?” Bellamy asks, stepping away from the ending fight as he notices the girl seems the most shaken up. His hands come u the cup her face. “Are you okay?” 

“They- the spear was in his chest,” she chokes out. “He looked so pale and so… he looked dead.” 

He pulls away from Cora and faces Clarke. “What happened?” 

“Grounders,” she responds. “I thought they were gone. Dead. I thought there was no more humans on earth. But we were crossing the stream and Jasper got hit from the other side. We were close, but he was hit and we hid, and once we got back, he was gone. I thought he might’ve died by the time we got there- but he had screamed only a few seconds before. They took him.”

Bellamy raises an eyebrow. “So?” he asks. “The kid got a spear to the chest. He’s probably dead anyways.” 

“Jasper’s gone?” Wells questions. Stiles glances down at Wells’ wrist, and Clarke’s gaze follows.

“You took it off?” she asks, her eyes burning in fury. “Why?” 

Wells turns his head to glare at Derek. “Ask him,” he responds bitterly. She storms over to Derek. 

“Hale!” she yells. Derek turns his head, smirking. 

“Yes?” he asks. 

“How many?” Clarke asks, gesturing to the delinquents no longer wearing their wristbands.

“24,” Murphy answers for him, “and counting.” He smirks at Stiles. 

“You’re idiots,” Stiles hisses. “All of you! Those wristbands send a signal to the Ark to tell them we’re alive!” 

Derek seems unfazed. “So?” he asks. 

Clarke scoffs. “So, that means the Ark will think we’re dying. You want medicine? Doctors? Mechanics? Farmers? They won’t come down if we keep off wristbands.” 

Bellamy scowls, coming up behind Stiles. “We’re stronger than you think,” he says. “Don’t listen to them!” he adds, raising his voice. “They’re some of the privileged! If the rest of the Ark comes back, they’ll get an easy life. Can you say the same? The Ark won’t forgive you. Jaha is a liar. They give you the wristbands and label you as prisoners. You guys aren’t criminals! You’re fighters, survivors! The Grounders should be afraid of us!” The delinquents began to cheer and Stiles frowns. He grips his hair and storms off. This was not happening. They can’t be this reckless. They’ll all die if they are. 

He leans against the dropship, sinking down slowly to sit down. He notices Clarke and Wells talking, and notices a handmade stretcher. He was going? He walks up to see Finn pleading to actually let Wells come. Stiles lets out a breath. So maybe he wasn’t coming. 

“No one else has volunteered,” Monty points out. 

“Oh, no. You’re not going,” Stiles says.

“Why not? Jasper’s my best friend!” he protests.

“I know. But, you need to send a signal to the Ark. You know engineering and raised in farming,” Stiles says. He smacks Monty's head playfully. “What’s up there is gonna save us all, you know that.” Monty grunts, but Stiles can see him smile as he ruffles his hair back. 

“Find him, okay Stiles?” Monty asks. 

Stiles nods, placing a hand on Monty’s shoulder. “We will,” he promises. He hopes he can stick to that promise. He really hopes he can. He tells Clarke he’ll be back soon before walking over to Bellamy and Derek. They were both in deep conversations with their sisters. 

Derek catches Stiles in the corner of his eye and he smirks. “What do you need this time, pretty boy?” he asks. Stiles would smack him, but he thought against it.

“Are you going to get Jasper?” Octavia asks, beginning to stand, but Bellamy gently pushed her down again. 

“No,” he says sharply. “Not again.”

“He’s right,” Stiles says. “Your leg will just slow us down.” 

Octavia huffs, crossing her arms over her chest. If she pouted her lips she’d look like a total child right about now. Suddenly, Cora stands, shaking her head.

“I’m going,” she says. 

“Cora, I don’t want you to get hurt,” Derek says. 

“Why don’t you come with us?” Stiles smirked. “Bellamy, too.”

“And why would either of us do that?” Bellamy asks. 

“Because you both have guns. And if you think they’re gonna follow you… well right now, they think only two of us are scared,” Stiles responds.

“Atom, keep an eye on my sister, Murphy come with me,” Bellamy huffs, and Stiles could smile in victory. Derek pulls his shirt further down. He had been bluffing about the two guns, but it seems he was right after all. 

The group had begun to walk, and somehow, they’d managed to get Finn to come along too. Clarke and Finn had gone off for water, and then returned soaked. “Take a swim?” Murphy remarks, which gets a glare from Clarke. 

She hands water container to everyone. “Drink,” she says. “I’ll go ahead to see-” 

“We don’t have to go much further,” Finn says, leaning down to inspect some rocks. Clarke goes down to join him, and Derek remarks something about being invisible to Wells. There was a low moan, and Stiles began to run

“Stiles!” Derek yells out. “Stop!” He runs right after the boy. 

“Guys- stop!” Clarke yells, and soon the whole group is running to get after them. 

Stiles runs through the bushes, and coming to a sudden stop. Derek is panting, coming right behind him. Stiles doesn’t miss the way that Derek’s breath hitches at the sight. They’d tied Jasper up, bounding his wrists and ankles against a tree, offering him like a sacrifice. Jasper’s eyes were closed as he let out another low moan. 

“What the hell is this?”

“Stiles, don’t-”

Too late. The boy was already walking towards Jasper. Not paying attention, he misstepped and the forest floor gave out on him. He cried out, and then he was holding onto something firm. He looked up to see Derek. Stiles looked down at the multiple pikes ready to split him open and back up at the man who just saved his life. “Thank you,” he breathes out as Murphy, Finn. Derek, and Bellamy all pull him up. He’s sitting, his breaths labored as he takes in what just happened. 

“You okay?” Finn asks and Stiles nods. 

“Yeah,” he says as he pushes himself up. “I’m okay.” He wasn’t focused on himself. He just wanted to make sure Jasper was okay. 

“Careful,” Cora warns. “There could be more traps set closer to him.” 

“I’ll cut him down,” Finn says, pulling a knife out of his pocket. “Come with me, Murphy.” 

“They put medicine on his wounds,” Stiles observes, noticing Jasper barely had any scratches. 

“Why save him?” Derek asks. 

“Probably use him as bait to catch their dinner,” Bellamy answers. As logical as that sounded, there were no other people before the Grounders. Who would they have used as bait before the 100. 

“Or…” Stiles turns to them all, his eyes clouded in worry. “They’re trying to catch us.” 

Murphy and Finn had kept trying to cut at the vines for a few minutes, but it barely seemed to budge. “They must excel at arts and crafts,” he mutters sarcastically through gritted teeth. 

“Hurry,” Derek urges, glancing around hurriedly, one hand ready to pull out his gun. 

“Going as fast as we can,” Finn mutters.

A low growl sounded in the background, making Stiles’ head snap in that direction. “What was that?” he asks, turning to Derek. 

“I don’t know,” he responds. 

There was a flash of black coming from behind Derek, making Stiles gasp, edging away of the bushes. There was another growl before a animal was pancing towards them. Golden eyes flashed, and Stiles was letting out a gasp of shock. It looked like a panther. Stiles had read about them on the Ark. They were dangerous creatures he had read. Dangerous creatures that could rip him open with its claws alone.

“Bellamy!” Stiles yells. “The gun!” 

The panther had disappeared back into the bushes. Bellamy reached for his gun and a flash of panic filled his eyes as the panther had lunged once again, teeth bared, going straight for Bellamy. A gunshot went off and the panther fell dead at Bellamy’s feet. Derek glanced up at his friend and then to Wells who was holding the gun, his hands shaking. 

Bellamy turns to Wells. He didn’t look grateful, just relieved he wasn’t dead. “Now she sees you,” he says, and Stiles took a minute to realize Bellamy was talking to Wells about Clarke. 

How long were they gonna survive like this? 

Walking back to camp with a unconscious teenage boy and a dead panther was not easy, but they were back by the end of the night. The other delinquents had cheered, but now was not a time to rejoice. But now was not a time for celebration. 

Stiles turned to Wells and Finn as they entered the dropship with Jasper. “I need boiled water and strips of cloth for bandage,” he says. “Clarke, I need your extra set of hands.” His mother had taught him a thing or two about medicine on the Ark, as well as extra teaching from Abby. 

He grunts in frustration as he waited for his supplies. “Calm down, Stiles,” Clarke says with a smile. “We can do this, okay?”

Stiles nods and glances down at Jasper. They had to save him. He glances outside to see Bellamy cheering. He wrapped his arm around Cora’s shoulder and kissed her cheek. Stiles rolls his eyes. He truly cared about nothing. Neither did Derek as he was too busy joking with Murphy. 

Finn returns with the bandages and water. “Thank you,” Stiles whispers, brushing the cloth gently over Jaspers wounds, trying to clean what he could to prevent infection. He smirks when he notices Finn give Clarke a small metal two-headed deer. She smiled and placed it down before going back to working on Jasper, and Finn took that as a cue to leave. 

“Go eat,” Clarke suddenly says as the sound of Stiles’ rumbling stomach filled the dropship.

“You sure?” Stiles asks. He wanted to deny, but he also hadn’t eaten in a day. Clarke nods and Stiles pushes himself to his feet. “I’ll bring you back something,” he adds before exiting the dropship.

Stiles walks over to Finn as soon as he notices the boy staring at the fire. “He’s stable,” Stiles says, getting Finn’s attention. “But without medicine…” He glances over to the cackling fire as he hears something thump against the ground with a clang. Stiles’ eyes widen as a man with no wristband walks away with food. “They’re taking off their wristbands for food?” he asks in shock. He shakes his head. “I- I won’t do it.” 

“You won’t have to,” he responds. Stiles opens his mouth to question him, but Finn was walking over to the meat on the sticks. He grabs two of them, but Murphy notices and stops him. 

“Wait,” Murphy says. “You think you get to play by different rules?” 

The smirk on Finn’s face almost makes Stiles laugh. “I thought there were no rules,” he replies before grabbing to sticks and walking away. Stiles smiles as he returns and hands him one. 

“Thank you,” he laughs. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Derek punch someone as they try to copy Finn. He winces and begins to pick at the eat. “I’m gonna go give this to Clarke,” he says, and Finn follows. He finds the blonde girl sitting on top of a rock. She scoots over for the two boys. 

“Finn,” Stiles moans through a mouthful of meat. “You might be my new favorite person.”

Finn chuckles and Clarke beams at the two. “Don’t mention it.” he says. Stiles glances at the crowd that was eating. These were criminals, but they weren’t bad. Not all of them. They just wanted to survive just like Stiles did. He hoped they did. He’d try anything in his power to make sure they could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter three is done! 9/10 till the first book is done! question: I wanna make a one-shot for Cora and Bellamy... should I?


	4. Instincts

Stiles had been desperately trying to tend to Jaspers wounds, but the screaming made this much harder than it needed to be. The delinquents had gotten annoyed by the first hour, and he swore he heard Murphy conspiring to kill Jasper. He wouldn’t be afraid to punch the living daylights out of that fucker. 

The dropship door opened, and of course Wells showed up. Stiles rolls his eyes. Clarke turns to him. “How’s he doing?” Wells asks. 

“How does it look like he’s doing?” Clarke snaps. 

“I’m just trying to help,” he protests. 

Clarke sighs as Jasper begins to moan again. Finn stares from the edge of dropship, leaning against the wall. Monty was frowning. The same thoughts of Jasper were going through their minds. “You want to help?” she asks. “Help Finn and Stiles hold him down.”

Wells’ eyes flash brightly and he nods. Clarke grabs a dagger and places it in the fire. Monty's eyes widen. “I’m not gonna like this...am I?” Stiles turns to the boy and shakes his head. 

Clarke places the dagger on Jasper’s infected wounds. The boy screamed, making Stiles close his eyes and wince. Suddenly, the Hales and the Blakes had both entered the dropship. 

“You’re killing him!” Cora cries, sitting at Jasper’s head.

“She’s saving his life!” Finn responds. 

“The kid’s a goner,” Bellamy says. 

“Back off,” Wells snaps at Bellamy. 

“If you think he’s going to live, you’re deluded. He’s driving everyone crazy,” Derek says. 

“This isn’t the Ark!” Stiles snaps. “Every life down here matters!”

“He’s a lost cause,” Derek responds.

Stiles turns to Octavia and Cora. “My mother taught me this stuff,” he says with a smile. “If there’s hope, there’s hope.” 

“You don’t have the guts to make hard choices. I do,” Derek continues on. “If he’s not better by tomorrow, either Bellamy or I myself will kill him. Stop denying the inevitable.” He turns to Cora and Octavia.

“Let’s go,” he says. 

“He saved my life, I’m staying,” Octavia says. 

“I’m done following your orders,” Cora says, refusing to look at either of them. 

Both of them glance at each other before exiting the dropship. “Power-hungry, self-serving, jackasses,” Monty says, glaring at the dropship door. “They don’t care about anyone but themselves.” He glances at Cora and Octavia. “Sorry,” he mumbles sheepishly.

“Can’t deny facts like those,” Cora says, pressing the cloth against Jasper’s wounds.

“Yeah,” Finn admits. “Derek and Bellamy are all that.” The look on his face is grave. “But… they’re also right.”

Stiles glances up at Finn and says nothing. He knows they were right, but he didn’t want to admit it. He was putting too much hope forward and not logic, but he needed to try. He needed to try to save Jasper. It wasn’t to prove anything to Derek and Bellamy, it was just pure instinct. He put others in front of himself. Something his mother used to say about him. He was selfless she would say. 

After stabilizing Jasper as much as they could, Clarke was quick to storm out of the dropship and Stiles sighs as Finn picks mindlessly at his fingernails. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he says. “I just…” 

“We know,” Stiles says. He did. He knew Finn wouldn’t ever want to willingly kill anyone or offend Clarke in any way.

“I know you’re trying. You and Clarke,” Finn says.

“We get it. It’s okay, Finn,” Stiles repeats. Finn was his friend, one of the few he had. He could trust him. “Go talk to her,” he says, glancing down at Jasper. “We’ll be fine for a while.” Finn smiles gratefully at him before exiting the dropship. Wells glances at the leaving boy before following after him.

“Our brothers aren’t that bad,” Cora finally says after a moment. “They’re total asses, I know, but they’ve been through some tough shit.” 

“I—”

“Bellamy and Derek are the only reasons we’ve been alive for so long. Both of our mothers died in childbirth, crazy enough. Derek was 8 and Bellamy was 9. They vowed to our mothers they’d protect us, ‘their sisters, their responsibilities.’ Their loyalties are fucked up, that’s all,” Cora says.

“A bit too fucked up if you ask me,” Octavia responds bitterly.

“They’re just trying to protect us,” Cora says to Octavia with a glare.

“I know,” she says with a sigh. “But it’s twisted.” 

Stiles frowns and opens his mouth to speak but is cut off by the dropship door opening. Finn is there. “We’re going out… do you think you can come along? Wells found what they were using on Jasper’s wounds,” he says.

Stiles glances at Jasper, who was resting more peacefully that he had been previously. “Yeah,” he says, standing up. “I can go.” Finn smiles and nods, and the two are both exiting the dropship.

“Seaweed?” Stiles asks as he observes the object in Wells’ hand. 

“Yeah,” he responds. “Which means we need to find a water source.” 

The conversation ended on fairly good terms, when Wells had to speak up once again. “You know,” he says, walking behind Clarke. “You should really reconsider this hating me thing.” Stiles rolls his eyes and glances at Clarke.

“You got my father killed,” she responds, not bothering to look at him. “Not happening.” 

“We’re surrounded by criminals,” the boy protests. “We need each other.” 

“Can’t you learn to drop it?” Stiles mutters to him once Clarke is out of earshot. 

“I’ve known her my whole life. You can’t speak for her,” Wells responds.

“She’s practically my sister,” Stiles responds with a shrug. “The last time she told you something you got her father floated.” 

Wells winces and Stiles could tell he hit him where it hurt. There was a loud clang, and Finn looks up shocked. “What was that?” Clarke asks, coming to a stop.

Finn doesn’t respond and begins to move the dirt and leaves around. “An automobile?” Stiles asks, peering curiously inside as Finn opens the door.

Clarke sighs, an exasperated look on her face. “That things almost 100 years old. It can wait. Jasper can’t,” she says. Stiles shakes his head and shuts the car door. 

After a mile or so, they’d finally found a stream. It was the one where Jasper had been hit, just farther down shore. 

“So… where’s that seaweed?” Stiles asks Wells.

Wells examines the stream before noticing the red algae. “There,” he points out. 

“How big was that thing that got Octavia?” Wells asks. 

“Big,” Finn says. “We can tie something…” He pulls out a bag. “To this and—” Stiles rolls his eyes and stops listening. He walks into the water and picks the seaweed. 

“Or, we can just do that,” Finn says, smiling and shaking his head at Stiles.

The boy drops the algae into the bag, smirking. “Aren’t you a charmer,” Finn says, pushing Stiles in the shoulder jokingly.

“Oh, I try,” he responds, his tone serious. He grins at Finn before a rustling in the trees catches his attention. He raises an eyebrow. What was that? A rustling was soon followed by a crow of birds. They fled the woods, right towards the group. They did their best to cover their heads, but soon realized the birds weren’t after them, they were escaping something. Stiles couldn’t help but wonder what.

A loud horn sounded in the distant, making Stiles’ heartbeat pick up ten times its normal speed. “Grounders?” Clarke suggested.

“Maybe,” Wells responds. “A war cry?”

“Or a warning,” Finn adds. 

A cloud of orange soon emerged from the woods. Stiles’ eyes widen. “What the hell is that?” Clarke gasps. 

“I don’t know, but I don’t feel like finding out,” Stiles responds. The orange cloud continued to make a straight path to them.

“Run…run!” Clarke yells.

She didn’t need to tell them twice. Stiles’ legs sprinted forward, determined to get out of the fogs way. “The car!” Stiles yells out in realization. “Get to the car.” His brain raced to remember a path to the automobile. The fog wasn’t that far behind him, and that forced his legs to move even faster. He threw the leaves and dirt carelessly and threw the door open. “Hurry,” he urges as everyone climbs in. The fog was only a few feet away as Stiles jumped in and slammed the door firmly shut.

A hour later, Finn was looking out the car window. “It’s still out there,” he says, giving the same report as he had for the past sixty minutes.

“We should just make a run for it,” Clarke says. “Jasper doesn’t have a lot of time.” 

“Us dying in acid fog won’t help much either,” Stiles remarks dryly. Clarke doesn’t respond, knowing he was right. Finn, who has been absentmindedly search around the car furrows his eyebrow as he picks something up. A bottle.

“Is that…?” Stiles asks.

“Booze?” Finn responds. “Yeah.” 

He lifts the bottle to his lips, taking a gulp. “Finn,” Stiles warns. “It could be—”

“Whiskey,” Finn cuts in. “Or, at least I think. Better than moonshine.” He offers the bottle to Wells.

“It’s alcohol. It’s toxic,” Wells says, firmly rejecting.

“It’s Earth,” Finn protests. “Everything is toxic. Plus, it’s a time-honored rite of passage.”

Wells scoffs. “We’ll pass,” he says, glancing at Clarke, as if knowing she’d agree.

The blonde girl just glares in returns and grabs the bottle from Finn. Both he and Wells look shocked, but Stiles just shrugs. Clarke has been reckless at times. “Far be it from me to stand in the way of tradition,” she spits at Wells before taking a huge gulp of the alcohol. She makes a face of disgust as she swallows it down before handing it to Stiles with a cough. 

He holds the bottle up as if to make a toast before taking a sip. The burning alcohol slid down his throat, and he winced, coughing as he struggled to drink it down.

The drinking had continued to go on, and Finn finally stopped checking the car window by nightfall. “It’s been hours,” Clarke says, swirling what was left in the bottle. “Jasper—”

“Is in good hands,” Finn finishes for her. “Octavia and Cora will take care of him.”

“While we're on that subject,” Clarke slurs. “Why does everyone think me and Stiles not wanting Jasper to die is a bad thing? Like we’re such downers. I for one can be fun, what about you Stiles?” 

Stiles rolls his eyes. “You’re drunk, Clarke.” Clarke barely paid attention to him.

“You think I’m fun, right?” she asks Finn, who nods.

“Oh yeah. Among other things,” the boy responds.

“You’re fun,” Wells voice cuts through the air.

Silence fell for a few moments, and Stiles began to pick at his fingernails. A bad habit. “Remember that time—” Wells continues.

“Remember that time you betrayed me and got my father executed?” Clarke slurs.

“Clarke,” Stiles pleads. “You’re drunk.” Stiles didn’t like Wells, but he sure as hell didn’t want Clarke to talk about her father's execution in a time like this. 

Clarke once again pays no mind to him. “Now, where were we? Fun,” she turns to Finn.

“Yeah,” he whispers awkwardly.

Suddenly, Clarke is turning to Wells again. “But, since you brought it up, and I totally didn’t, because I don’t want to talk about it…” Drunken tears formed at Clarke’s eyes. “Why?” she asks, her voice breaking. “Why did you do it?”

Wells lips moved, but no sound came out. “I… I made a mistake, Clarke,” Wells responds.

“‘I made a mistake, Clarke,’” she repeats. Tears were beginning to stream down her face now as she shook her head. “Not good enough.” She sniffles and leans towards Wells. “You know, I bet you couldn’t wait to run to Daddy, tell him everything so that he’d finally believe you were the perfect son he had always wanted…” 

“What do you want me to say?” Wells screams. Stiles’ eyes widen, and even Clarke has to take a minute to realize what happens.

“I want an explanation,” she continues, her voice cracking.

“I can’t give you one,” Wells says sadly. “I thought I could trust him.”

Clarke shakes her head vigorously and leans against the leather seat. “Well, I thought I could trust my best friend,” she responds. “I guess we were both wrong.”

“I’m still your friend,” Wells tries to reason desperately.

Clarke, who still hadn’t stopped crying, looked at him helplessly. “No you’re not. If you were my friend, you’d walk into that fog and never come back,” she cries.

Stiles, out of pure pity for Wells, takes the bottle from Clarke. “You’ve had enough for tonight,” he says, and Clarke doesn’t protest as Stiles begins to drink his share.

Suddenly, the bottle is snatched from his hand by Wells, who just sniffs at it before gulping it down. “So we having fun yet?” Finn remarks sarcastically.

Earth was just grand.

By morning, Stiles has noticed the fog clear up. He pushes the car door up. “Let’s go,” he says, pushing himself out of the car. “Jasper doesn’t have much time.” 

They walked as fast as they could, Clarke leading. She hadn’t spoken a single word to anyone. Not even Stiles. Stiles knew Clarke, he knew when to leave her alone. She’d come around eventually. She always did. Stiles chooses to ignore Wells and Finn talking about Clarke, knowing he’d probably say something rude. 

“Trapped in a 100-year-old car running from acid fog,” Finn says as they reach closer to camp. “Whew...last night was pretty fun.” 

Clarke glances at him and sighs. “It wasn’t fun. It was irresponsible. We should’ve just left by the time the fog cleared.”

“We wouldn’t have made it very far,” Stiles interjects. “You were a little rough on Wells last night.”

Clarke glared at her best friend. “You think that was rough? Thought you knew me better. You know that was nothing,” she responds. Finn glances at him apologetically, and Stiles just shrugs.

“He’s a straight-up guy,” Finn says for Stiles. “He loves you, you do know that right? Yet every time your father comes up, he can’t give you a straight answer. Makes me think he might be hiding something.” The look in Clarke’s eyes made Stiles shiver as they continued to walk. “So how do you know it was Wells that turned him in?” 

Clarke came to an abrupt stop. “I’m one-hundred percent sure, alright?” she snaps. “Wells was the only one I told.” Stiles fumbled with his fingers. There was a period of time where he and Clarke had grown apart, giving Wells much more time to be with Clarke. They would be able to bond. 

“But if he the only who knew?” Finn asks with a raised eyebrow. Clarke’s eyes widen as she tries to come up with an answer, but a female scream cuts her off. 

“Who...who was that?” Clarke thinks. Stiles frowns, he knew that voice, he just couldn’t name it. 

They rush forward to see Derek hovering over… Stiles peers closer, and realizes it’s Atom, except his skin was burned and his normal eyes were replaced with a wispy gray. Derek turns his head to notice Stiles, who was staring at him in shock. Stiles walks forward and kneels over Atom. His bottom lip trembled as he inspected the dying boy. 

“I heard screams,” Stiles says to Derek, meeting his eyes. 

“Charlotte found him,” Derek responds. “I- I sent her back to camp.” 

That was why he recognized the scream. Stiles had been woken by the girls screams one night and comforted her through a nightmare. 

Stiles nods at Derek before at Atom, who looked closer to death every moment that passed. Stiles forces a smile. “Okay,” he says softly to him. “I’m gonna help you, okay?” 

Atom doesn’t respond as he struggles to breathe, his chest rising and falling quickly. Derek wordlessly hands the small knife to Stiles, who feels like he might be sick. He forces another smile before pushing the knife deeply into Atom’s neck. He winces at the boy makes a wordless cry of pain, his lips moving but creating no sound. They stay until he’s stopped breathing. Derek moves to go, but Stiles stays. He pressed two fingers over Atom’s eyes and closes them. “We’re good,” Stiles finally says, wiping the tears that escaped with the back of his hand. 

The ground, that’s the dream, right? 

When they return to camp, it’s nightfall. “We gotta get to Jasper,” Stiles says to Clarke, pushing past the ongoing crowd. He turns to Derek and Finn. “I need boiled water to make the medicine.”  
Derek turns to a crowd that was watching in awe as they returned. “Get Stiles and Clarke whatever they need. Tell that to Bellamy,” he orders and they nod, scurrying off. 

As soon as Stiles enters the dropship, Cora is in front of him, her eyes flashing with panic. “About time!” she yells. “They’re gonna kill Jasper!”

“Did you get the medicine?” Octavia asks. Stiles’ stomach drops when she notices the cloth covering Atom’s body.

“We have to talk,” Clarke says, but it’s too late, Octavia is rushing over to Derek. 

“Octavia,” he warns, holding a hand out to restrict her from going farther.

“Stop, Derek,” she says, pushing his hand away. Derek glances at Bellamy, who moves to say something, but is too late. Octavia had lifted the jacket covering his face. Her eyes widen and her face freezes over in shock. 

“Atom,” she breathes. 

“There was nothing I could do, O…” Derek trails off as Octavia lifts her hand to silence him.   
“Don’t,” she snaps, tears staining her face. Bellamy stares helplessly. She places the jacket over his head once again and stands.

“O,” Derek pleads, reaching out to touch her. “O. please-” 

She smacks his hand away and storms away, wiping her tears furiously. Bellamy doesn’t say anything, just hangs his head and shakes it solemnly. 

“Anyone lost?” Bellamy asks, threading a hand through his hair. 

“No one yet. Jasper’s still alive,” Murphy says. “Would’ve been dead if your psycho sisters-” 

Derek pushes past Bellamy, grabbing Murphy’s shirt collar. “Our what? What?” he screams.

Murphy looks unfazed. “Your little sisters,” he corrects with a growl and pushes Derek away, defiance in his eyes. 

“Yeah, that’s right,” Bellamy says, pushing past Derek to snarl in Murphy’s face. “Our little sisters. You got anything else you wanna say about them?” 

“Nothing,” Murphy responds, glaring at both men. 

“One more word I’ll rip your tongue from out of your goddamn mouth,” Derek growls. “That’s a promise, John.”

They both walk away, leaving the watching crowd stunned. Murphy dusts off his jacket and scowls, walking in the other direction. 

Stiles lifts a cup to Jasper’s lips, which he greedily drinks from, gulping it down. “I’m sorry,” Stiles says after a moment to Octavia. “About Atom.”

She shrugs, biting her bottom lip. “I just gotta get used to people dying,” she responds before looking down at Jasper. “Except you, you’re not allowed to die.” Octavia smiles at Jasper and Stiles smirks at the two. 

Clarke breaks the silence once more. “I’m gonna go,” she says. “I’ll be back soon.” Stiles nods, and he didn’t need to be an expert to know where she was going.

Stiles glances at Finn to see a bottle of alcohol in his hand. “You take that, too?” he asks with a smile as Finn hands it to him.

“Mhm,” Finn says.

“Hand me some of that,” Octavia groans, snatching the bottle after Stiles had his share of it.

She lifted her head back and began to drink. She coughed after she got it all down, and hands it back to Finn. “That burns,” she rasps.

A voice from the corner alerts their attention. “Can I hit some of that?” Stiles grins.

“Jasper!” he exclaims, rushing over to his side. 

“Welcome back, buddy,” Finn says kindly. 

Monty comes over and clasps his hand, pearly white teeth exposed as he smiles down at Jasper. “Was that a dream or did I get speared?” he asks drowsily. 

“You have a very impressive scar to prove it,” Clarke says, entering the dropship. 

“Ah, my saviors,” Jasper says, gesturing to Clarke and Jasper. Stiles grinned and turned to look at Clarke, who was beaming right back at him. 

“Thanks for not dying,” Clarke jokes, but her tone proved otherwise. “I don’t think I’d be able to make any more of that today.”

“I’ll try not to die tomorrow, too,” Jasper promises. “If that’s cool.”

Stiles laughs, his head thrown back. Octavia reaches over and squeezes Jasper’s hand. “Oh, hello,” Jasper smiles. Octavia smiles back, squeezing his hand harder. 

“I’m going to get some air,” Stiles says, excusing himself. “I’ll be back to check up on you later.” 

As he climbed down the dropship, he admired the sun as it sunk below the trees. One of the beautiful things about this horrible planet. He noticed a log in the clearing and shrugs. Might as well admire what was left of the sunset before the moon rose. 

He hoists himself up on top of the log, looking at the sun as the final rays began to fade. He looks around the clearing, and his eyes meet another pair, except these eyes have no life. Stiles gasps, hoisting himself up off the log. He peers closer, unable to see as well in the dark. He shakily puts a hand out to move the body to get a better look. When he meets the familiar face, he doesn’t know what to do but scream. It was Wells.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a lil late update I'm sorry. One more chapter or so and Sterek's development will be fully in action!


	5. Rules

Stiles didn’t know what to do other than scream in pure shock. Who had done this? He was running now, running as fast as he could to camp. He wasn’t paying attention, or else he would’ve known Derek before he went crashing into him. 

He gasps in shock, his eyes wild with fear. Stiles looks up, meeting Derek’s fierce sea-green eyes. “Woah,” Derek says, placing his hands on Stiles’ shoulder. “Hey. What’s wrong? What happened? Grounders?” 

Stiles shakes his head violently. “Something,” he gasps out. “Something...killed…Wells. I found him dead in the woods,” he whimpers, closing his eyes as he remembers the lifeless eyes of Wells fresh in his mind. 

“Come on. I’m taking you back to the dropship,” Derek says, trying to ease Stiles as gently as could back to camp. 

Telling Clarke was the hardest part, she had been at peace for a few good hours after she’d made up with Wells, only to learn he was gone. Derek has gone back out to get his body, saying he didn’t want to raise any havoc and they needed to keep quiet. That didn’t happen. People had noticed Derek in the middle of the night bringing the body back. Rumors of grounders had began to spread around, but that wasn’t logical, and that just made Stiles worry grow. There was a possible threat out there if it wasn’t grounders. 

That morning, he’d gone to stop by the dropship to check on Monty, see if he had a signal going to the Ark, or starting one. Instead of finding his answer, he found Clarke holding her hand out for Monty to remove her wristband.

“What's she doing?” Stiles whispers to Finn as he enters the dropship. 

“Getting revenge on her mother,” Finn responds, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“I got it!” Monty exclaims, pulling the wristband to see it still lighting up, sending signals.

“Nice, Monty,” Stiles says, crouching down to look at the wristband in amazement.

“So we can get a signal up to the Ark?” Finn asks.

“Yes. I’ll have it done by nightfall,” Monty says proudly. 

“I knew you could do it,” Stiles says with a kind smile. “I’ll see you later, Monty. Tell us if you got any new updates.”

He stands up and walks out of the dropship with Clarke. He didn’t fail to notice the boy that fell, a log hunched over his shoulder. He excuses himself and rushes over to help the poor, very overworked delinquent. They’d been working on defenses against the Grounders, and right now a wall seemed to be their best option. 

He lifts the log, but doesn’t have time to do anything else. “Hey,” Murphy barks. “You think the Grounders are gonna wait for you? How about you just let the little girl-“ He gestures to Charlotte. “Do all the work, huh?” 

“I just need some water,” the delinquent responds. “I’ll be fine after.” 

Murphy opens his mouth to shoot something back at him, but Derek cuts him off. “Get him some water,” he orders.

Murphy glares at Derek before walking off, the delinquent still kneeling down. “Hey,” Derek says, turning to Charlotte, his voice rough and authoritative. “You gonna help him get that?”

As if on cue, she rushes to grab the log as if she’d actually have the strength to lift it. Derek shakes his head and smiles, placing a hand over hers to stop her. “Hey. I’m just kidding,” Derek jokes, smiling at the girl. She beams back at him, and Stiles can’t help but feel confused. Derek… in a teasing mood? Derek glances down at Stiles before lifting the log and walking off. He shakes his head and scoffs before turning to the delinquent to see if he was doing okay. 

Murphy walks over with a can of water, but instead of handing it to him, he places it down and unzips his pants. Stiles’ eyes widen as he urinates on the poor boy. The delinquent flinches back and desperately tries to get whatever on him off. “What the hell, Murphy!” he yells. A new group of delinquents have to hold him back.

“You said you wanted a water break?” Murphy responds with a shrug of his shoulders. 

Stiles rolls his eyes and begins to walk away, startled when he notices Cora, Octavia, and Jasper. Cora held a small cloth in her hand, while Octavia held a knife. “What—”

“No time,” Cora cuts him off. “We have to get these to Derek and Bellamy.” Stiles nods. 

Looking as discreet as possible, they enter a tent where Bellamy and Derek are waiting, Clarke is surprisingly with them. “What is this?” Stiles finally asks.

“Ask Jasper,” Derek responds, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Octavia, Cora, and I were out. Or, trying. I’d stumbled and tripped, and found myself staring…” He unravels the cloth, revealing two detached fingers. Stiles stifles a gag. “And a knife,” he continues, gesturing to the one lying on the table. 

“We need to warn everyone,” Clarke says. “This… this wasn’t the Grounders. There’s a murderer in our camp—”

“There’s multiple,” Derek interjects.

“It’s better for everyone to know it was the Grounders,” Bellamy chimes in. 

“Better for you, you mean,” Clarke snaps. “If you keep them scared they’ll work for you, right?”

“Yeah, that’s how it works,” Bellamy responds coolly. 

“The people deserve to know who killed Wells,” she says, grabbing the knife.

“We don’t know who did it,” Derek responds.

Clarke practically shoves the knife in Derek’s face. “J.M,” she spits at him. “John Murphy.” With no further explanation, she pushes past Bellamy to the outside, searching for him.

“She’s gonna do something you won’t like,” Stiles says before sprinting after his best friend.

When he finally finds Clarke, she’d already found Murphy. “Don’t deny it!” she yells, shoving Murphy in the chest. “We all know you hated him.” Murphy seemed to be barely listening as he reaches for his knife, and rolls his eyes in frustration.

“Bellamy! Derek! Come on, do you really believe this crap?” he asks, and neither of them say anything, waiting for the scene to play out before them before taking further action. Murphy scoffs. “Listen, the Grounders killed Wells.”

Stiles couldn’t watch this anymore. It was back and forth and no further evidence could settle this. This was the ground. There was no trails, nothing. He turns to speak when Cora speaks up. “You tried to kill Jasper, too!@ she states.

Murphy froze, but quickly covered it with more bravado. “This is ridiculous. I don’t have to answer to you. I don’t have to answer to anyone,” he yells. 

“I’m sorry, I must have misheard you,” Derek says, cupping his ear mockingly. “Come again?”

Bellamy was glaring daggers at Murphy. “I just be hearing things too, Der,” he says. 

No amount of bravado could save Murphy now. “Come on,” he pleads. “I didn’t do this.”

“Your knife was found with his fingers,” Bellamy says.

“This is the society you want?” Stiles asks, speaking up. “You want no rules—” He gestures to Bellamy and Derek. “So we get to kill each other with no punishment? At this rate, we won’t need to be taking off our wristbands for the Ark to think we’re dead.” 

“I didn’t kill anyone,” Murphy says, facing Stiles. 

No one was listening to him apparently. “I say we float him!” a male voice says. Several choruses of agreement rang out.

“No,” Stiles says. “That is not what I’m saying.” 

“It’s justice,” a different delinquent says, and Stiles recognizes this as the delinquent that Murphy pissed on earlier. 

“It’s revenge,” Stiles tries to reason.

“Justice,” the delinquent shoots back. “I say we float him!” There were cheers of agreement, and Stiles bit his lip, turning to see Murphy, his eyes dark. Stiles took a cautious step back.

“Murphy—” The delinquent lunges at Stiles, but is tripped by someone from the crowd. The other watchers took that as a cue to start kicking him, pushing Stiles away before he could intervene. 

Cora moves to stop the event, but Derek pulls her back. “Don’t,” he warns. 

Stiles stares in shock as they tie ropes around Murphy’s arms and gag him. “STOP!” he screams, trying to follow after them, but was too late. They’d already began to tie the noose. They pulled out a sort of stool and placed Murphy a atop of it. He goes after to the delinquent who spoke of this, but he was held back, the delinquent grabbing onto his wrists. “Get off of me!” Stiles growls before clenching his hand into a fist, aiming for the delinquents jaw. 

Stiles turned to Derek. “Stop this!” he begs. “Derek, they listen you!”

Derek seems to consider it before the same damn delinquent turns to him, already recovering from the punch Stiles had given him. “Derek!” he says. “You should do it!” He turns to the wild crowd. “Der-ek! Der-ek!” Soon, the whole crowd was cheering his name. 

“Derek,” Bellamy says. “You’re not-”

Derek’s eyes are wide as he tries to make a decision. “I saw you in the woods!” Stile screams over the yelling. “I know you’re not a killer! I know Bellamy’s not a killer either!” 

Derek turns to Stiles, and the Derek he saw in the woods was gone. Like Derek had to get rid of him for the moment. He shrugs Stiles off of him. Though they were the same relative height, Derek was much more built and stronger. “Derek!” Stiles gasps, following after him. “Derek, stop, don’t do this!” Derek refuses to listen and continues to march straight for Murphy. 

“Derek,” Murphy begs through the gag. Derek winces. Through Murphy’s begging, the shouting crowd, Stiles’ desperate screaming, he couldn’t think straight. He shoots his foot out, kicking the stool down. Murphy chokes, his airway being restricted, his throat tightening.

Stiles was punching Derek now, his hands balled into fists as thy practically assaulted his chest. “Do you see what you’ve done?” Derek screams at him. “You brought this on yourself, pretty boy. You should’ve kept your mouth shut!” He doesn’t know why, but he lets Stiles hit him a few more times. Maybe the pain felt good, who knows. Maybe he deserved it. He finally shoved Stiles back. Stiles, who is full on sobbing know, looking up at Derek with wide and vulnerable eyes. 

“What the hell!” a voice yells over the noise. Stiles turns to see Finn. 

“Finn!” Clarke shouts through the noise. Finn glances at her, but turns to face Charlotte. 

“Get out of here!” he yells. “Go!” Stiles had barely taken the time to notice the girl, barely over age thirteen. Finn pushes past Stiles and turns to the delinquent.

“Stay back!” the delinquent yells, pulling out a knife.

“No!” Stiles yells. They weren’t going to harm one of the only good people that had been sent here to Earth. “Don’t touch him!”

Through all the noise, Charlotte’s voice seemed to get through. “STOP!” she screams. “Murphy didn’t kill Wells! I did!”

The crowd goes silent with shock, and Stiles takes that time to grab the knife from the delinquent and cut the rope. Murphy falls to the ground with what should be an inhuman noise. Stiles turns to the girl, his eyes wide, and she stared right back. 

While the group was distracted with Murphy, Bellamy, Finn, Clarke, Stiles, and Derek all went into a ten with Charlotte,hoping to hide out long enough to clear things up.

“What was that?” Derek asks her. He was trying to be gentle, but with the current of state of mind, that was hard.

“I was trying to slay my demons. Slay my demons like you told me,” Charlotte fires back at him. 

“Derek, what the hell is she talking about?” Bellamy asks.

“She misunderstood me,” Derek tries to explain, his fingers threading through his black hair. “Charlotte, that’s not what I meant!”

Murphy’s voice rang out as clear as day even through the shouting crowd. “Bring the girl out, Derek!” he yells.

“Does anyone have an smart ideas?” Bellamy asks.

The three stood silently, angering Derek and Bellamy. “Now you stay quiet?” Derek asks.

“Why are you blaming us?” Finn yells. “Those are you and Bellamy’s boys out there. You two can control them.” 

“This is not our fault!” Derek fires at Finn. “If Clarke has listened, they’d still be building the fucking wall!”

“Bring her out!” Murphy repeats, his voice much more dangerous.

“No!” Charlotte pleads. “Please, Derek!” Her bottom lip trembled with fear as she whimpered.

Derek’s gaze softens as he turns to face the little girl. He bends down on one knee to reach her height. “Charlotte,” he says soothingly. “It’s going to be okay, alright? Just stay with them. I have some things I need to take care of.” Then, he lifts the tent and exits.

Murphy is the first one to face him, his whole face bloodied from the punching he’d ensued. “Look who decided to join us,” he muses.

“Dial it down and back off,” he growls, gesturing to the whole group of idiots behind him.

“Or what?” Murphy asks, stepping closer. “What are you gonna do, Hale? Hang me?”

“I was giving the people what they wanted,” he growls, voice dangerously low.

“Yeah,” Murphy smirks. “Let’s do that, then.” He turns to his group of “followers”. “All in favor of hanging the real murderer?” He holds his hand up, and Derek in disgust sees some more people raise their hand, too. A handful though, not enough. Murphy scoffs. “Alright, I see. You think it’s okay to string me up for nothing… but when this little bitch confesses, you want to let her walk!” His tone rose almost every word, leading him to scream by the end of it. Once again, silence ensued, enraging Murphy even more. “COWARDS! ALL OF YOU—“ 

“Murphy!” Derek interjects. “It’s over.” Surprisingly, the delinquent nods.

“Okay,” he says, holding both hands up. “Whatever you say boss.” 

Derek turns his head to go back to the tent, but Murphy grabs a piece of wood from a pile, and the next thing he sees is black.

They had been walking through the woods for a good ten minutes. Stiles had known Derek was in trouble the minute he’d stepped outside. “What if he’s dead?” Bellamy asks. “I’m not gonna leave Derek to get killed by Murphy’s retaliation!” It was strange for Stiles to see Bellamy worried for Derek. They’d seem so strong, so collected, like they didn’t feel. It seems Stiles was wrong for once. 

“Do you even have a plan, Finn?” Clarke asks. “Or are we walking aimlessly through the woods?” 

Finn opens his mouth to respond, but Clarke is yelling. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she snaps at Charlotte. “Just because you’re saved doesn’t mean you’re forgiven.” 

Stiles turns and frowns. “Clarke,” he says gently. “Come on, she’s just a kid.”

“She’s a killer!” Clarke exclaims. She turns to the girl, her eyes blazing. “You killed someone, Charlotte! You ended his life! Did you even stop to think about it for one second?” Charlotte doesn’t meet her eyes, and that just angers Clarke further. She jerks Charlotte rather roughly to look at her. “Look at me! You can’t just kill someone to make yourself feel better!” 

Charlotte quivers. “Clarke!” Stiles yells. “Stop.” Clarke glances up at Stiles and just grunts in response. He felt for Clarke, it pained him to see her like this, but she was out of control. 

“CHARLOTTE!” Murphy’s voice cuts through the air.

“We need to run,” Bellamy says.

“We could,” Finn says. “But my plans much better.” He lifts up a metal trapdoor, a evident smirk on his face. 

“You always have a plan… I really don’t understand,” Stiles scoffs and begins to climb down. 

As soon as everyone else is safely inside, he grabs a lamp sitting on a table. His eyes widen when he notices the whole area. There was food, water, and then, with a heartbreaking look, he notices a family picture.

“Finn? What is this place?” Stiles asks the boy. 

“For now, its home,” Finn responds. 

Charlotte practically collapsed once Stiles finally laid her on the bed. She was out before her head hit the pillow. Stiles gently placed a blanket over her before turning to Finn. “I can’t believe you kept this place quiet,” Clarke grunts.

“Come on, Clarke. Who would we tell?” Finn asks. “Bellamy already knows— that should be enough.”

“It has useful supplies,” she responds, glancing around. “Stuff we could need.”

“The foods expired, no weapons, we don’t need it,” Finn reasons.

“Well— we could use it to regroup,” Clarke suggests.

“Here, share this with the group,” Finn says, pulling something from behind his back. A jar of pencils. Clarke gasps and smiles at him.

Stiles glances at Charlotte. “What are we gonna do about her?” he asks softly.

“I— I don’t have an answer,” Finn answers. 

“This is my fault. If I hadn’t confronted Murphy—” Clarke starts.

“No. This is not your fault. You didn’t know how this was gonna end,” stiles interrupts.

“Derek did,” Clarke protests. She turns to Bellamy. “And you knew, too! You didn’t even try to stop him.” 

Bellamy scoffs. “You don’t understand. Derek is like my family. I know him. He’s— he cant be controlled sometimes. That was one of them. He’s arrogant, I know. I am, and I get that from growing up with only him. Closest thing to a brother I’ll ever get. If I stopped him, you’d be dealing with a lot worse than just Murphy being hanged.” 

Stiles scoffs. “So… we think the Grounders are a threat, but now we’re killing each other?” 

“We need to have consequences,” Bellamy points out.

“But we can’t be hanging each other,” Finn says. 

“No, we can’t,” Stiles sighs, running his hands through his hair. “We just have to die something so Murphy won’t kill us for helping her. You know he’s not the forgive and forget type.” 

“No…” Bellamy sighs. “He’s not. But I’ll kill him if does anything to Derek, Cora, or O.” 

“We won’t let him do anything, okay?” Stiles says, trying to sound reassuring. 

“Yeah…” Bellamy grabs a spare pillow on the couch where Finn and Clarke sat. “Let’s hope not.” 

It takes Stiles a long while to actually fall asleep, but he doesn’t sleep for long, maybe three hours at the most. His eyes flutter open and he rubs his eyes, looking around and smirks when he sees Clarke’s head on Finn’s shoulder, his head resting atop hers. His mind flashes back to the time when he’d confronted Finn on liking the blonde girl. Seems his statement still stood. He looks at the bed where Charlotte has been, and squints when he realizes the blankets were pulled down, the bed empty. “What the hell,” he gasps, fully awake. He turns to Bellamy who’s sleeping a few feet away. “Bellamy!” he hisses, smacking him in the shoulder.

The man groans, lifting his head from the pillow. “What?” he grunts. 

“Charlotte's gone!” he says. 

The noise woke Clarke and Finn, who sat in confusion. “She’s gone?” he repeats.

“She must’ve heard us talking,” Bellamy says.

“So what do we do?” Clarke asks. 

“We go find her,” Stiles says.

When Derek woke up, he’d still been lying face down in the mud. It was nightfall and the camp was deserted. They must still be looking for her, he thinks, placing a hand to his temple. Not wasting any time, he follows the smaller child-like mud prints as fair as he could, until he sees her, wandering aimlessly. Why was she out alone?

Derek moves forward as stealthy as he could before coming up behind her, placing a hand over her mouth to silence her. She screams, the sound muffled by his hand. “Charlotte,” he says, praying she’ll calm down, not knowing how far away Murphy is, butis fear of him being confirmed close as he screams in the distance. “Charlotte, shh.” 

The girl pushes him off of her. “Let me go!” she yells, trying to run from him, but Derek being much faster, catches up immediately, trying to steady her. 

“Charlotte,” he says, frustrated. “I’m trying to help you!” He grabs onto her wrist but she tries to jerk away from him.

“I’m not your sister!” she snarls. “Just stop helping me!” She turns to the direction of Murphy’s voice and begins to scream. “I’m over here!” she yells.

Derek grabs her, turning her around. “Are you trying to get ya both killed?” he snaps.

“Just go,” she pleads. “I’m the one they want!”

Derek places his hand on her shoulders, leaning down to reach her height level. “Listen to me, Charlotte,” he says. “I. Won’t. Leave. You.” The young girl stares at him, her eyes wide.

“Please, Derek,” she begs. She turns to see Murphy’s torch, and Derek takes that as a cue to throw the girl over his shoulder. She bangs on his back and begins to scream. “MURPHY! I’M OVER HERE!” Derek walks faster as Murphy calls for her again, his voice much clearer than the previous time. He was going to get the both of them out of this alive, he had to.

Stiles pulls out a lamp, looking down at the smaller footsteps, just freezes when he notices ones that are much bigger. “Someone else was here,” he states. His head snaps up as he hears Charlotte’s voice not far off. 

“No, no! Murphy!” she cries. 

“Murphy has her,” Bellamy says, rushing past them and after Charlotte’s voice. 

Derek had heard muffled voices not far off, but it was hard to run with a girl slung over his shoulders, so he does his best to speed walk. “DEREK!” she screams. “DEREK LET ME GO!” Derek ignores her and pushes past the trees. He stomps his foot when they come across a cliff, 

“Damn it,” he mutters, glancing over Charlotte. Murphy couldn't be far off. He finally sets Charlotte down, and soon as her feet hit the ground, Murphy emerges from the bushes.

“Derek!” he shouts. “You can’t fight all of us. Give her up.”

Derek puts a protective arm in front of Charlotte. “Maybe not,” he admits. “But I can take a few of you with me.” He looks to see Stiles emerge from the bushes. 

“Derek! Stop!” he shouts. He winces when a bit of rain hits the top of his head. He turns to Murphy. “This has gone way too far.” Murphy doesn’t respond and glares at Stiles. “Just calm down, and we’ll talk.” 

Murphy glances at Derek and Charlotte. He opens his mouth as if to speak to Stiles but just lunges forward, pulling Stiles to his chest and holding a knife to his throat. “I’m sick of listening to you talk,” he spits in his ear.

“Stiles!” Clarke yells, trying to run over to him, but Finn holds her back. 

“Let him go!” Finn yells. 

“Back up or I will slit his throat!” Murphy threatens. 

“Murphy,” Bellamy says, walking forward to face him. “Don’t do this.” 

“Murphy, please don’t hurt him,” Charlotte begs. 

Murphy scoffs. “Don’t hurt him?” he repeats. “Fine. I’ll make you a deal. “Come with me and I will let him go.”

Stiles meets Charlotte’s eyes and he shakes his head. “No, no don’t do it, Charlotte,” he says, trying to push against Murphy. Charlotte doesn’t listen listen and begins to try to walk past Derek, but he holds her back, making her scream and protest, struggling against his strong hold. Once she stops, Derek turns and shakes his head. “No. Not happening.” 

“Murphy,” Derek says. “This is not happening. No one is dying.”

Charlotte looks up at Derek. “I can’t let anyone get hurt because of me anymore,” she whispers, the hard rain almost drowning out her words. “Not because of what I did.” She glances at Derek. “I’m sorry.” 

Stiles knows what was happening before she jumped off of the cliff. It even shocked Murphy, giving Stiles the opportunity to push past him and run to the cliff edge where Derek was on his knees, gripping his hair. Stiles’ mouth was open wide with shock as he cries out, hot tears streaming down his face, mixing with the rain. 

Stiles was sure he’d rip his hair out if he pulled any harder. “No,” he says in a state of shock. “No, no, no…” 

Bellamy walks forward and places a hand on his shoulder, saying nothing, Letting the man have a moment of silence. It was a short moment as Murphy began to speak. 

“Derek…” He trails off as Derek stands and Bellamy steps aside.

“Derek think about what you’re do-” Bellamy was cut off as Derek screams, running forward at Murphy. He shoves him to the ground, violently punching his already bruised face from earlier. 

Stiles turns his head. “Derek, no.” He races over to the fighting men. He knew if this went on further, Murphy was surely a dead man. He tries to shove Derek off, but Derek just shoves him away with one hand. Stiles tries again, grabbing Derek by his shoulders, and this time succeeding. 

“No! Get off of me!” he yells. “He deserves to die!” He points a accusatory finger at Murphy.

“No!” Stiles yells back, his voice cracking as he could barely talk anymore as it is. “We don’t get to decide who lives and dies! Not down here!” 

Derek’s eyes darken. “So help me God if you say people have a right to decide-” 

“No!” he yells. “Clarke and I were wrong, okay? You and Bellamy…” He throws his hands up, letting them fall back down on their own accord. “You two were right, okay? Sometimes it’s dangerous to tell people the truth. But if we’re going to survive down here, we can’t live by whatever the hell we want!” Derek rubs a hand over his eyes, shaking his head. “We need rules.”

Derek’s hand falls from his face. “Who makes those rules, huh? Me? Bellamy? You? Finn? Clarke?” 

“For now, we make the rules, okay?” Stiles tries to explain calmly. 

“And what do we do? Take him back and pretend nothing ever happened?” Derek yells.

“No!” Stiles shoots back. He looks over his shoulder to see Murphy choking on his own blood. He turns to Derek. “We banish him.” Derek and Bellamy make eye contact and Finn nods. 

Derek grabs Murphy roughly. “Get up!” he snarls. He pushes Murphy over to the cliffs edge, his hand wrapped around his throat, making Murphy gag. He leans in close. “If I ever catch you near camp again, we’ll be back here, and I’ll stick to that tongue thing, understand?” He shakes the boy violently, and he nods. Derek throws him to the side like he was useless, which Stiles could say he was. He flinches as Murphy lands at his feet, coughing and gasping for breath. Derek looks to the small group of Murphy’s followers. “As for the four of you, either you come back with me or die with him.” Derek says nothing else and storms off, but Stiles doesn’t miss the way Derek’s hand comes to wipe away tears, and it seems neither does Bellamy.

“I’m gonna go after him,” Bellamy says. “Just… we’ll be back.” Stiles nods and Bellamy chases after him. 

“Derek!” Bellamy yells. Derek turns to look at his best friend and shakes his head.

“Don’t,” he says, swallowing hard. “Bellamy, don’t.” The rain had continued to come down, sticking Derek’s hair to his forehead, causing him to push it back. 

“It wasn’t your fault,” Bellamy reasons. 

“It was!” Derek yells angrily. “It was! I could’ve…” His voice faltered. “I could’ve saved her.” 

“You can’t everyone, neither of us can,” Bellamy says, stepping closer. 

“Don’t you see? Octavia hates me, Cora, my own sister can’t stand me…” His breaths sharpen. “It won’t be long until I do something to lose my best friend.” 

Bellamy scoffs. “You don’t get it,” he says with smirk. “You’re stuck with me, You’re my brother, Derek. You’re always gonna be stuck with me.” Derek stares at Bellamy helplessly as Bellamy places a hand on his shoulder. Bellamy embraces the man, closing his eyes. Derek holds him just as tight. 

He stares at Bellamy once they pull away. “Everyone around he gets hurt,” he whispers. Bellamy shakes his head and smiles.

“Guess I’m going to go through a shit ton of pain, huh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's starting!!!


	6. Everyone Around Me Gets Hurt

Stiles was waken in the middle of the night by screams and gasps. He walked out of his tent to see a shirtless Bellamy, his arm wrapped around Cora’s waist, and Octavia. He unknowingly found himself looking for Derek. Where was he? 

 

“They’re coming to help us,” one says. “Now we can kick some Grounder ass.” Stiles rolls his eyes at that but stays quiet nevertheless. Everyone began to call out things it could’ve brought, things they wanted, but all Stiles could see was the fear on Bellamy’s face as he walked into Derek’s tent. 

“Derek!” 

Derek sat up as he was kicked roughly in the side. “Ow! What the fuck, Bellamy?!” he yells. 

“Put a shirt on and get in my tent. A pod just dropped,” he says. 

“A pod?”

“Yes, a pod,” Bellamy responds. “Hurry up.”

Derek reached over and grabbed the first shirt he saw. He threw it on and messily shoved his blanket to the side. Bellamy exited the tent, and Derek followed into his tent.

“We should get moving,” Cora says. “Everyone is ready.” 

“Wait a minute,” Derek says. “No one is going anywhere.”

“It’s too dark,” Bellamy chimes in. “It isn’t safe. We’ll head out at first light. You two…” He gestures to two delinquents. “Spread the word.” Cora crosses her arms over her chest.

“You do realize the Grounders have a chance to see this, don’t you?” 

“We wait until sunrise,” he says firmly. 

Cora glances at her brother, an eyebrow raised. “We do as Bellamy says,” he responds. Cora rolls her eyes, something multiple people could confirm, the Hales did way too much. 

Stiles smirks when he sees Clarke and Finn enter the camp. “Fun night?” He wiggles an eyebrow suggestively. 

“Shut up,” Clarke chuckles. 

“So… did you see the pod?” Stiles asks. 

“Yeah, we’re going to check it out,” Finn says. “You should come.” 

Stiles slings a bag over his shoulder. “I was going anyways.” 

“Didn’t you hear?” a girl asks. “Bellamy and Derek said we have to wait.” 

Stiles turns to the girl. “Where are they?” She points to the tent, which he assumes is Bellamy’s. Stiles thanks her and jerks his head for Clarke and Finn to follow him. 

He enters it to find Cora, who jumps as they enter. “Fucking hell,” she mutters.

“Sorry,” Stiles apologizes. 

“Where’s Bellamy and Derek?” Finn asks. 

“Gone. Packed their gear, too,” Cora responds. 

“Fuck!” Stiles swears, stomping his foot. “They told everyone to stay. Whatever’s in that thing, they want.”

“Which means we have to get there first,” Clarke responds.  
“You shouldn’t be far behind them,” Cora says. “They took off 10 minutes.” 

“Thank you, Cora,” Stiles says gratefully. 

She gives him a closed lip smile. “No problem,” she says. 

Stiles storms off, making Finn and Clarke jog to keep up. “I should’ve known they’d go for the radio,” he says. 

“It’s not your fault,” Finn tries to reason. “How would you have known?” 

“Because they’ve spent every minute since we’ve landed making sure no one on the Ark knows we’re alive,” Stiles responds. 

“You still can’t predict it,” Finn tries. 

 

“That’s exactly what I have to do!” 

Derek and Bellamy were practically sprinting by the time they’d gotten into the woods, looking around desperately for the pod. They stopped once their names were called by a familiar voice.

“Derek! Bellamy!” Octavia yells.   
“What are you doing here?” Derek asks. 

“Go back to camp,” Bellamy says. 

“Both of you are the shittiest liars ever. It’s sad only I can figure them out, though your boyfriend,” She gestures to Derek. “Stiles? Yeah he’s doing good at figuring them out, too. Nevertheless, you still lied to me, you lied to the camp.” She points an accusatory finger at them. “You just want whatever’s in the pod, don’t you?” 

“First of all, no, he’s not my boyfriend. Second of all-” Derek starts.

Bellamy pushes Octavia back, “Go home!” he yells angrily. It wasn’t rough, but it was definitely a hard shove. 

Octavia didn’t seem fazed by this. “Oh, so now you wanna play big brother, huh?” she growls. “Well, I guess the jokes on me. You’re just a selfish dick! Both of you!” 

“I did this for you. To protect you. For you and Cora. If the Ark comes down and finds out we’re alive, they’ll come down, and when they do…” For one of the first times ever, Bellamy Blake falters. “We’re dead. Me and Derek. Probably put us on our knees and shoot us in the head in the middle of the camp, and I’ll be damned if it’s Jaha.” 

“What did you two do?” she asks, fear lacing her voice.

“I shot him,” Derek mumbles. “I took the gun from Bellamy, who was going to do it anyway, but I just...I got to it first. I shot Jaha. He’s probably dead, but there’s a chance…=” 

“What?” Octavia whispers. 

“We found out you and Cora were being sent down. We made a deal with someone, they said if we killed him, we’d get onto the dropship. That’s why, okay? And so… I did it,” Derek says, putting all the blame on himself. 

“He was gonna float both of our mothers if they hadn’t died in childbirth, okay?” Bellamy says in Derek’s defense. “He locked you and Cora up. He deserved it.”

“I didn’t ask you two to do this! Neither did Cora!” Octavia yells. 

Derek swallows, not able to look at the broken look on Bellamy’s face. “You’re right, this is our fault, okay? No, it’s my fault. I persuaded Bellamy to do this. All of it. It was my choice. I’m sorry I’m such a fuck up, okay? Is that what you want to hear? Which means, whatever they sent down, I will be the one to take care of it.” 

Octavia stares at him in disgust and shock, and Derek can’t take that look, so he just walks away, and he knows Octavia walks in the other. 

Derek and Bellamy find the pod first. Bellamy looks inside and his eyes widen at the sight of a body. It was a female, but she didn’t look to be breathing. He pulls a knife out and angrily cuts the radio from it’s cord.

“I got it,” Bellamy says, slamming the pod door angrily. 

“Let’s just go,” Derek huffs. “Destroy the radio before we get back.” 

Bellamy shakes his head when the rushing of a river fills his ears. He walks away for a few moments, and Derek can hear a faint splash in the distance before Bellamy returns, no radio in his hands.

“Let’s go,” he grunts out. The crunching of leaves beneath feet caused them to run, leaving the pod and the girl inside behind. 

Stiles came to a short up, his breath hitching. It was the pod. He, Clarke, and Finn had split up in hopes of covering more ground, and it seems he’d found the pod first. 

Stiles grunted as he forced the pod door opened, and he did not expect to find what he saw. Inside, a girl sat, lifting off her helmet. “Holy shit!” he exclaims. The girl looked at him and she smiled.

“So… I made it?” she gasps in wonder.

Stiles nods. “Yeah,” he responds. “Yeah, you made it.” 

Stiles helped the girl, who’s name he’d learned was Raven, clean up as much blood on her as he could. It was helpful, but he’d have to look at the wound later. Right now, he was marvelling in the fact the Ark had finally got someone down here.

“It’s exactly how I dreamed it would be,” she says, smiling at Stiles. She gasps as cold rain began to fall on them. 

“Rain?” she gasps. Stiles nods.

“Welcome to the ground,” he laughs. 

Raven smiles, and Stiles swears he can see the girls eyes widen two times more than their actual size. “Wh- oh my, God! Finn!” 

She smiles at the boy and runs up to him. They must’ve known each other. He expects them to hug maybe. What he doesn’t expect is for Raven to wrap her arms around Finn’s neck. What shocks him even more is that Finn begins to kiss back. 

As Raven begins to explain to Finn how she landed, Stiles turns to Clarke, sympathy in his eyes. She just shakes her head, trying to get rid of the hurt in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” he mouths. He’d comfort her more later, but for now he needed to make sure Raven’s head was okay after the land. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, she began to slip from Finn’s grasp. He was able to catch her nevertheless and sit her down. 

He races over to Stiles, and the pleading look in his eyes makes him scoff. “Stiles,” he begins. 

“Why are you explaining to me? Talk to Clarke later,” he says.

“We need to put pressure on her wound,” Clarke says, grabbing a cloth for Raven. She hands it to the girl, who thanks her. 

“This is Clarke, and you’ve already met Stiles.” Finn says, introducing the two to Raven. 

“Wait...Clarke?” She stands up quickly, making Stiles wince, and he wanted to snap at her to go slower. “This was because of your mom!”

“My mom?” Clarke repeats. 

“This was her plan,” Raven explains. “We were trying to come down together. If we had waited-- oh my god…” she looks at all three of them worriedly. “The council was voting on whether to kill 300 people or not. We couldn’t wait?”

“When?” Stiles asks worriedly. Worries for his father began to flash through his mind. 

“Today!” Raven gasps, she runs over to the pod. “We have to tell them you’re alive!” They run to the dropship, and Stiles swore he could feel his heart in his throat. Raven looks inside the pod. “The radio...it’s gone,” she says. “It must’ve gotten loose during the reentry. I should’ve strapped it to the A-strut. Stupid!” she yells angrily. 

“No, this is my fault,” Stiles says. “Someone got here before us. We have to go find them.” He would kill Derek and Bellamy. With no further explanation, he began to run in the direction he assumed they would’ve gone. 

Derek and Bellamy tried to walk as fast as they could, but they hadn’t been fast enough. 

“Hey!” Stiles calls. “Where is it?!” Stiles grabs Derek shoulder to turn him around. 

“Hey, pretty boy, you taking a walk in the woods?” Derek asks, avoiding the question.

“They’re getting ready to kill 300 people up there to save oxygen. I can guarantee it won’t be council members!” Stiles yells at him, not even trying to call him out on his lie. “It will be working people! Your people.” 

Derek seems to take this in before someone is shoving him hard in the chest. “Where’s the radio, Derek!” Finn yells angrily. 

“Bellamy and I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he snaps, pushing Finn back.

“Derek Hale and Bellamy Blake?” Raven scoffs. “They’ve been looking everywhere for you.” 

“Shut up,” Bellamy growls. 

“Why are they looking for them?” Stiles asks. 

“Derek here shot Chancellor Jaha, Bellamy was an accomplice,” Raven says.   
Realization finally hit Stiles. “That’s why you wanted the wristbands off!” he exclaims. 

“The ‘whatever the hell we want,’” Clarke adds in. 

“You selfish assholes only care about is saving your skin, isn’t it?” Finn growls. 

Bellamy and Derek just began to walk, not wanting to hear anymore. They were all talk at this point. “Hey! Shooters!” Raven yells, keeping a pace behind them. “Where’s my radio!” 

“Get out of our way,” Derek says, shrugging her off. 

“Where is it?” Raven repeats.

“I really should’ve killed you when I had the chance,” Bellamy scoffs.

Raven holds her arms out, almost as if to challenge him. “Really? Well, I’m right here.” Derek grabs her jacket and pushes her back into a tree. Stiles gasps when Raven is suddenly holding a blade to Derek’s throat. Derek’s eyes darken to something almost inhuman. Deadly. “Where’s. My. Radio?” she repeats slowly. Stiles could applaud the girl in front of him right now. Clarke didn’t seem to like what she had done as much as Stiles did.   
“Okay, stop it. All of you,” Bellamy snaps. Derek glances at him before finally releasing the girl. Raven returns the defiant glare at Derek, lifting her chin. “Jaha deserved to die and you all know it,” Bellamy continues. “So stop getting pissed at us for just doing the dirty work that needed to be done.” 

“Yeah, a majority of us hate him, too,” Raven replies. “But he’s not dead.” 

“0What?” Bellamy asks. 

“You h00eard me. Your friend, he’s a pretty fucking lousy shot,” Raven responds. “And you couldn’t finish the job for him.” 

Derek’s eyes widened. “You see what this means, don’t you?” Stiles asks, placing a hand on Derek’s arm. “You’re not a murderer.” He glances over to Bellamy. “Neither of you. Both of you did what you had to do to protect your sisters. That’s that you both are. You can do it again by protecting 300 of your people.” Stiles’ eyes widened as he spoke, and he swore he saw the slightest bit of vulnerability in Derek’s eyes. “Where’s the radio?” Stiles asks gently. 

“It’s too late,” Derek responds gently. 

After returning to camp, they’d brought out more people to come out and search for the radio, which they had learned from Bellamy that he had thrown it in the water once they’d found the pod. 

When searching, Derek had turned to Stiles. “Did you mean that?” he asks. Stiles looks up at Derek and he nods.

“Yes. I did. Derek, you get a second chance from all of this. You didn’t kill anyone. You’re not the killer everyone thinks that you are. Neither is Bellamy,” Stiles says with every bit of sincerity he could muster. 

Derek opens his mouth to respond, but before he can, a delinquent, who’d Stiles learned his name was Jones, was calling out. So instead of responding, all he does is give Stiles a small smile, which Stiles could tell took a lot for him. “I found it!” Jones yells, holding the wet piece of radio. 

Raven abandons her spot with Bellamy to run over to him. Finn, Clarke, Derek, and Stiles follow after. Raven thanks Jones and takes the radio back. “Can you fix it?” Stiles asks. 

“Maybe. But it will take at least half a day to dry out the components,” Raven says, and all Stiles can do is beg up to the sky for one of the 300 people dying to not be his father.

“Like I said,” Derek repeats. “It’s too late.” 

Clarke angrily turns to him. “Do you see what you’ve done?” she shouts. 

“You asked us to help and we helped,” Derek says nonchalantly. 

“300 people are gonna die now, because you two are selfish idiots!” Clarke yells. 

“Hold up,” Raven says. “We don’t have to talk to the Ark. We just have to let them know we’re down here, right?” 

“How do we do that with no radio?” Finn asks. Raven doesn’t reply and just smacks his shoulder. 

Turns out, they’d be carry pieces of the pod. Stiles grunts as he lifts the control panel with the help of Finn. 

They tried hard to get the rockets done in time. It was nightfall by the time Raven was ready to launch. Once they did, Stiles held his breath. This had to work, If not, 300 people were dying and even on the ground Stiles couldn’t have that. While watching, Derek nudges Stiles. He nods at the boy and Stiles returns it. For Derek, it seemed to be the only reassuring action he could give Stiles. The purple flares lighted up Derek’s face, the rockets gleaming brightly in his eyes. 

“I know what you did was wrong,” Stiles says suddenly, catching Derek’s attention. “But you still helped nevertheless. Thank you.” Derek turns to Stiles and shakes his head. 

“We didn’t. We messed everything up. Clarke was right about us being killers even if we didn’t kill Jaha,” Derek responds. Without really knowing, they’d been walking and had now walked into the far side of the camp. 

“You’re not killers,” Stiles persists. “Clarke’s being rough. Derek, I don’t like your actions or you as a person really…” Derek raises an eyebrow. “But,” Stiles adds quickly. “You still helped us look. I know you wanted to leave.”

Derek shakes his head. “No, you don’t get it,” he responds. “I am the literal definition of chaos. I can’t do anything. Everyone around me… they always seem to get hurt no matter how hard I try. Hell, I’ve just managed to kill 300 people-”

“That’s not true! You don’t know if they’re dead. Raven’s rockets-” Stiles begins. 

“Were probably a bust,” Derek continues. “We might not have got there in time.”   
“Derek, you can’t know that,” Stiles tries to convince Derek.

“Just…” he sighs and turns to Stiles. “Just trust me when I say I get everyone hurt, okay?” He frowns and looks at Stiles. Stiles doesn't respond and just shakes his head and walks away. He knew what Derek said was far from true.


End file.
